Punto judder when pulling away

My Punto is nearly 3 years old. I have been experiencing an intermittent problem
for about the last year. When pulling away the car will sometimes judder badly.

Other times it pulls away fine. I've checked the engine mountings, so I think
it's clutch related, but I'm not sure where the problem lays. If it's a clutch
problem, is it straightforward to replace (There is not yet a Haynes workshop
manual for this model) Has anyone else out there had this problem ? Any
suggestions welcome.

Its more than likely oil on your clutch plate causing the judder. Its a
fairly common thing on a lot of cars. Basically, the crankshaft oil seal
(where the crankshaft enters through the clutch housing) is leaking. Engine
oil gets on to the plate and then it gives a very bad judder. This can be
intermittant and sometimes worse than others. When cold it can generally be
at its worse. Its a big job - clutch out to get at the offending oil seal -
but you might be able to help things short term by adding an engine oil seal
additive (like 'Stop Leak' etc from Halfords). This helps worn oil seals and
can work wonders some of the time. As a test, if you rev the car like hell
on a quiet road and purposely slip the clutch and keep doing so for about 30
seconds or so (real high revs to induce real slipping on the clutch) it will
burn off the oil temporarily (until more leaks on to it) and you will find
the judder has gone!
Paul

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